Almost every aspect of data stewardship, from the definition to implementation of the whole concept, is described in this book. It is an excellent guide for any organization that involves user data management and protection.

Chapter 1 talks about what a data governance program is and the roles and responsibilities of program participants (including data stewards). The author explains that data governance is all about how people work together to make recommendations and decisions about data. The key to a successful data governance program is to set up and staff the organization as needed, and understand and socialize the roles and responsibilities for the data governance participants. The data stewards, who are the most knowledgeable about the data, must work together to determine ownership, meaning, and quality requirements for their data.

Chapter 2 shows each type of data steward, including business, technical, project, domain, and operational data stewards. It also discusses the type of person needed in the roles, and how the various types of data stewards are chosen and assigned.

Chapter 3 presents a detailed list of the responsibilities for each type of data steward. Based on the type of data stewardship, a large number of responsibilities are split up. The enterprise data steward has some leadership responsibilities. Business data stewards target the data owned by their business function. They are supported by operational data stewards, with some of the hands-on work and technical information provided by technical data stewards.

Chapter 4 explains the starting point of the data stewardship effort. Getting data stewardship done takes many steps. You need to understand your organization and its culture, get the message out and gain support, and survey what resources exist at the beginning.

Chapter 5 talks about the training of data stewards. It also provides guidelines on how to get the most out of your training efforts. The training will improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the data stewardship effort. A good training program must include clear goals, appropriate materials, exercises for reinforcement, tests for comprehension, and the ability to apply what you’ve learned.

Chapter 6 shows the practical aspects of the main tasks and responsibilities of data stewardship. Practical data stewardship includes the following steps: (1) choose key business data elements based on their value; (2) assign and determine responsibilities; and (3) document the business metadata (definition, derivation, and creation and usage business rules) for those data elements.

Chapter 7 shows how data stewards contribute to improving the quality and usability of data assets. Data stewardship makes those tasks much easier, shortens the time taken, and reduces the overall effort.

Chapter 8 describes how to identify and measure the results you are getting from those efforts in two main areas: business results metrics (measures the effectiveness in supporting the data program) and operational metrics (measures the acceptance of the program and how well the data stewards are performing).

Chapter 9 shows a maturity model with multiple levels and dimensions. There are several steps for this: (1) establish the levels and dimensions, most likely based on some maturity model available in the literature, and then adjust them for your organization; (2) rate the current maturity levels and determine what the target levels should be; and (3) revisit the maturity on a periodic basis to determine the current maturity level and see if progress is being made.

Chapter 10 sums up the material covered in previous chapters and concludes what readers should learn from this book.

Data stewardship plays a critical role in data governance, which together with data stewards make data governance a reality. There are different rules and scopes for the many different kinds of data stewards who need to work together to achieve the desired results. A robust and mature data stewardship effort can improve the quality and usability of data assets, which leads to better business decisions, better customer satisfaction, and better business opportunities. This book provides comprehensive views in both theoretical and practical aspects. Readers will not only understand the concept of data stewardship, but also be able to implement a similar data stewardship program in reality. The book is well written and supported by clear logic. I would recommend it to any organization with data stewardship needs.